Ⅰ.Long Education History and Profound Professional Foundation
College of Plant Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University has a long history. With a history tracing back to Hubei Farming School founded in 1898 by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan province. After several times of evolvement, the Agronomy Department of six universities, including Agricultural College of Wuhan University, Hubei Agricultural College, Sun Yat-sen University and other three universities combined to form Agricultural College with three majors: Agronomy, Plant Protection and Soil Chemistry. On the basis of these three majors, Department of Agronomy, Department of Plant Protection and Department of Soil Chemistry were set up in 1954. Department of Agronomy and Department of Plant Protection have strong faculty force, and have gathered a group of eminent experts, such as Professor Yang Xinmei, Hu Zhongzi, Zhang Xichang, Liu Houli and so on. With the further development and reformation of the university, in the process of adjusting the departments and disciplines, the original Department of Agronomy and Department of Plant Protection merged into College of Plant Science and Technology in July, 2002.
Ⅱ. Remarkable Advantages of Disciplines and Superior Conditions of Education
The college now has two first-level disciplines: Crop Science and Plant Protection, among which, Crop Science (Crop Genetics and Breeding, Crop Cultivation and Farming System included) was rated as the national key first-level discipline, key construction discipline of the national ‘211’ project, preponderant discipline in Hubei Province, Plant Protection was evaluated as the key discipline in Hubei Province, and Plant Pathology was rated as characteristic discipline of higher education institutions in Hubei Province. The college has 2 primary-discipline doctoral programs, 2 post-doctoral scientific research stations, 12 doctoral programs and 13 Master-degree programs. It recruits undergraduate students in Agronomy, Plant Protection, Plant Science and Technology and Seed Science and Engineering every year. The college enrolls over 1600 full-time undergraduates, 1100 postgraduates and 105 foreign students at the moment.
The college contributed to turn high-quality scientific research platforms and scientific and technological resources into teaching resources. It owned a number of multidisciplinary research base groups, which provided significant support for talents training, including 7 national key laboratories and R&D centers, including National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, National Center of Crop Molecular Breeding, National Plant Gene Research Center (Wuhan), National Engineering Research Center of Rapeseed, National Engineering Research Center for Microbe Pesticides, National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center (Hubei) in Medicinal Plant Breeding and Cultivation, and 14 provincial and ministerial key laboratories and R&D centers, such as Rapeseed Engineering and Technology Research Center, The Wuhan Research Branch of the National Rapeseed Genetic Improvement Center, Key Laboratory of Rapeseed Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture, The Supervision, Inspection& Testing Center of Microbial Products Quality, Ministry of Agriculture (Wuhan), National Indoor Conservation Center of virus-free germplasm of fruit crops, Hubei Crop Disease Monitoring& Safety Control Key Laboratory, Hubei Insect Resource Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, Hubei Rice Research Center, Research Center of Pesticide Formulation, Hubei Province, Edible Mushroom Engineering Technology Research Center of Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Engineering Research Center of Medicinal Plant, etc., as well as 9 School-level Research and Development Centers.
Ⅲ. Strong Faculty Force and Outstanding Masters
The college has an excellent teaching team led by academicians, 1000 Talents Plan, Yangtze scholars, national-level famous masters. The college now has 235 professional full-time teachers, including 63 professors, 70 associate professors, 61 doctoral supervisors, 32 teachers with third-level or above. In addiction, the college has 1 Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 Academician of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, 1 expert of ‘Ten Thousand Talents Plan’, 6 distinguished professors of the ‘Chang Jiang Scholars Program’, 2 national-level famous teaching masters, 1 winner of ‘The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars’, 9 winners of ‘Talents Project’ of Ministry of Education, 4 winners of Hubei Provincial fund for Distinguished Young Scholars’, 1 winner of ‘GCIRC outstanding scientists’ ------the highest honor in the international academia of rapeseed, 1 ‘Distinguished Young Scientist of CGIAR’, 1 winner of ‘Agricultural Science Award of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World’, 1 winner of ‘Rape Research Lifetime Achievement Award’ by MRPC in Indian, 1 winner of ‘Jeanie Borlaug Women in Triticum Award’, 2 winners of ‘the Fund for Young Teachers of Henry Fok Educational Foundation’, 10 experts who have made important contributions to the country or the province.
Ⅳ. Outstanding Achievements in Teaching Reform and Excellent Talents
Agronomy has been selected as the national second-category characteristic specialty, and Plant Protection was rated as the first batch of brand specialty in Hubei Province. Agronomy and Plant Protection have been rated as two specialties for the ‘National First Batch of Excellent Agroforestry Talents Training Program’, and it has established 1 Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Hubei Province, 2 National Essential Open Video Course and 7 National Excellent Resources Sharing Courses. It has published 17 textbooks, among which, four were textbooks of the National ‘12th Five-Year Plan’. And it has won 1 first prize and 1 second prize of National Teaching Achievements Award, and 2 first prize and 1 second prize of Provincial Teaching Achievement Award.
Ⅴ. Fruitful Achievements in Scientific and Technology Innovation and Growing Ability of Serving the Community.
During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the college has undertaken more than 1303 various research projects, such as ‘863’, ‘973’, ‘948’, ‘National Scientific and Technological Research Projects’, ‘National Natural Science Fund and International Cooperation and Exchange Projects’, and provincial and ministerial level scientific research projects, which has approved the funds of 613.2628 million yuan. It has bred 33 new varieties of rape, rice, cotton, corn, grains (barley and wheat), ramie, edible mushrooms, and has got 18 identified results, 111 authorized patents, 1 special prize and 2 second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, 38 provincial and ministerial level awards. Moreover, 738 SCI papers have been published, 74 of which have impact factors ≥5.0, and the highest impact factor was 31.477. The college also created 5 productive and efficient cultivation models, and the cumulative effected area is 120 million acres, and the new economic benefit was 2.33 billion yuan. Besides, over 120 experts have been sent across the country to carry out new rural construction services and more than 4,000 rural grassroots cadres and technicians have been trained. Relying on ‘111 Plan’, over 80 experts have been to Jiankang village of Yuekou town in Tianmen and Jixiang village of SanLigang town in Suizhou to carry out scientific and technical services and counseling, which developed further cooperation in terms of breeding and promotion of new cotton and new edible mushroom.
Ⅵ. The Development of International Communication and the Continuous Expand of Cooperation
The college has established the long-term and stable cooperative relationships in aspects of scientific research, personnel exchanges, and training with more than 100 universities in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Korea and so forth. It has carried out over 100 projects and invited foreign well-known experts for teaching and technical cooperation. Furthermore, it has got national significant international exchange and cooperation programs. In addition, the college has signed an agreement of scientific research cooperation and joint supervision with College of Life Science, Dong-A University, and it has also signed agreements of short-term programs with University of Saskatchewan and University of California, Davis. Several experts working at the college hold positions at International Academic Organization Institutes, such as Fu Tingdong, chairman of GCICR, Zhou Yongming and Yang Guangsheng, directors of GCICR, Peng Shaobing, senior member of ASA and CSSA. The college has successfully held international meetings, including the 12th International Rapeseed Congress, Sino-Canada Joint Workshop on Brassica Genomics and Genetic Improvement of Rapeseed, International Academic Conference on the Global Warming and Rice Research& Countermeasures, International Academic Conference on Biomass Energy and Biotechnology, the 15th International Sclerotinia Workshop, as well as national-level and provincial-level annual academic conferences and symposiums on crop science, plant pathology, cotton fiber, edible mushrooms, insects, etc.
